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A Writer At a Loss for Words?

I haven’t written anything this past week – I’ve been at a loss for words. I got sidetracked by a personal incident. Early last week, my car was vandalized while on my morning hike. Evidently I had not hidden my bag (containing wallet, phone, etc.) behind the grocery bags as well as I’d thought; thieves threw a large rock through my car window and took my life. I’ve spent the last seven days trying to protect my identity from further damage. Only time will tell if I’m to be lucky.

When I had to fill out the Missing Property Report for police, I realized how little attention I’ve paid to the “little things” in my life – like what exactly was in that bag. It struck me that I (and probably many of you) go about each day in a certain state of blissful ignorance about some of the little details in life. Details deemed unimportant until they need to be recorded on a Missing Property Report and given a value that isn’t sentimental, like the worn leather key ring embossed with a silver Indian headdress – bought at a small craft fair while on a motorcycle ride with a good friend, about twenty years ago. Gone. Or the pen I’d purchased on a trip to Curacao, covered in red leather and carved with a picture of their famous swinging bridge. Gone. Or the new spring green note pad for taking notes while on the road so I’d remember to do whatever needed doing when I got home. Gone.

I want my key ring back. And I really miss that pen. And damned if I can remember what I wrote in that notepad, to remember to do when I got home.

Turns out cell phone technology has its drawbacks, too. WhatsApp doesn’t transfer your contacts to a new number. So all of my international friends who did not supply me with their emails? Gone. And my contacts list of phone numbers? That’s gone, too, (or so I thought) because I had to change the number but luckily found a backup of contacts in my Lookout app – which doesn’t transfer contacts to a new number. I had to add them each manually. All two hundred of them. Notepad? All my mileage and book promo expenses from the last four months were on there and that doesn’t transfer either. Like the Six Million Dollar Man, I, too, will have to re-build (and if I could run like the Six Million Dollar Man, I would’ve caught the buggers as they sped away from the scene).

I’m actually taking this all in stride. I’m a little surprised that I have not had some sort of mental breakdown over it, though I admit I was tempted to let myself fall apart. No, I decided to forge ahead with renewed resilience, determined to find the thieves who tried to take my life from me (not that it’s much of one and I wouldn’t wish it on another person – except for maybe the idiot thieves who stole it from me, maybe they could do better with it).

So I’m thinking the lessons here are: 1) don’t bring my bag/purse with me in the car when I go on a morning hike (now I stick my new, smaller wallet in my fanny pack and take it with me), 2) live a smaller life with less tech-y toys and apps, and/or 3) let go of the past. Cherish the here and now, cherish what family and/or friends you gather around you (especially during a trying time as this), and keep cherished items OUT OF YOUR BAG/PURSE.